“Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.”
~ Heraclitus (c.540 – c.475 BC)
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.
Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality.
Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
~ Lao-Tzu
“That nothing is static or fixed, that all is fleeting and impermanent, is the first mark of existence. It is the ordinary state of affairs. Everything is in process. Everything—every tree, every blade of grass, all the animals, insects, human beings, buildings, the animate and the inanimate—is always changing, moment to moment.”
~ Pema Chodron
“Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. We tend to forget that we are part of the natural scheme of things.”
~ Pema Chodron
“[T}he recognition of the impermanence of all forms awakens you to
the dimension of the formless within yourself, that which is beyond death. Jesus called it “eternal life.” ….It leads to…. nonresistance, non-judgment, and non-attachment .. the three aspects of true freedom and enlightened living.”
~ Eckhart Tolle – A New Earth (edited)
“The words “This, too, will pass” are pointers toward Reality. In pointing to the impermanence of all forms, by implication, they are also pointing to the eternal. Only the eternal in you can recognize the impermanent as impermanent.”
~ Eckhart Tolle – A New Earth
“Life always bursts the boundaries of formulas.”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“Corporeality is transient, feeling is transient, perception is transient, mental formations are transient, consciousness is transient.
And that which is transient, is subject to suffering; and of that which is transient and subject to suffering and change, one cannot rightly say:`This belongs to me; this am I; this is my Self’.
Therefore, whatever there be of corporeality, of feeling, perception, mental formations, or consciousness, whether past, present or future, one’s own or external, gross or subtle, lofty or low, far or near, one should understand according to reality and true wisdom: `This does not belong to me; this am I not; this is not my Self’.”
~ Gautama Buddha
“This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky, rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.”
~ Gautama Buddha
“A corporeal phenomenon, a feeling, a perception, a mental formation, a consciousness, which is permanent and persistent, eternal and not subject to change, such a thing the wise men in this world do not recognize; and I also say that there is no such thing.”
~ Gautama Buddha
“The First thing to understand about the universe is that no condition is “good” or “bad.” It just is. So stop making value judgments. The second thing to know is that all conditions are temporary. Nothing stays the same, nothing remains static. Which way a thing changes depends on you.”
~ Neale Donald Walsch
“In the beginning was Atman; the one without a second.” . . .
“We are like the spider.
We weave our life and then move along in it.
We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream.
This is true for the entire universe.”
~ Aitareya Upanishad

Ron’s Comments on Permanent Impermanence.
Only in the past century have quantum physicists confirmed what the Buddhas, saints and sages discovered and have revealed for millennia: that in this world everything is impermanent.
Every appearance is in a constant state of flux or ‘flow’; so everything that appears, disappears; every form eventually melts into mystery. [Not even ‘diamonds are forever’.]
Since Einstein’s groundbreaking theory of relativity, quantum scientists have confirmed that in this world of space/time duality and causality everything is energy; that every form and phenomenon, whether or not perceptible or measurable, is ephemeral; so, that this is a world of permanent impermanence.
Yet, paradoxically, in our polarity/duality ‘reality’, it is only the immutable Eternal – ever imminent in all manifestation – which can recognize and realize that every appearance is impermanent, and that eternal Cosmic consciousness is Ultimate Non-duality Reality.
Hence the worldly Persian adage “This, too, will pass”, reflecting on the evanescence of the human condition, contradictorily points us toward ultimate Reality, because it is only That unchanging Eternal Awareness invisibly imminent in each of us which can recognize that everything which appears will pass.
Only after my spiritual awakening, and gradual exposure to Eastern mystical philosophy, did I begin to reflect on the crucial importance of experientially realizing the dream-like impermanence of this world; that Earth life can be likened to an ephemeral mental mirage from which we suffer until awakening to our true Eternal self identity and the non-dual essence of all phenomena.
Such philosophy teaches that we unavoidably suffer in this transient world of samsara or maya until realizing the true nature of self and all phenomena. Knowingly or subconsciously everyone seeks eternal peace and happiness. But that is impossible in this world where no pleasure is forever. So our unavoidable suffering – from unskillful thoughts, words and deeds, which are subject to law of karma – is a cosmic ‘incentive system’ impelling us to overcome ignorance and discover our true non-duality self-identity and ‘reality’ – Eternal LOVE.
Suffering ends when ignorance ends; ignorance ends with experiential Self knowledge that we are Infinite Potentiality beyond conception, rather than ego-identified mortal and limited entities.
While meditating on these ideas, I began discovering, appreciating and writing about apt scriptural and other authoritative quotations, like those cited above.
May they help us find ever expanding happiness as we less and less identify as mortally ephemeral entities and more and more identify as Eternally immutable Awareness ever imminent in everything/everyone everywhere.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner

“You will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.”
~ John 8:32

“You are “gods”;
you are all sons of the Most High.”
~ Psalm 82: 6

“Your own will is all that answers prayer,
only it appears under the guise
of different religious conceptions to each mind.
We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, but it is only the Self, the ‘I’.”
~ Swami Vivekananda – Jnana Yoga

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
~ Dr. Seuss

“You cannot teach an ego to be anything but egotistic,
even though egos have the subtlest ways of pretending to be reformed.
The basic thing is therefore to dispel, by experiment and experience,
the illusion of oneself as a separate ego.”
~ Alan Watts

“People can’t be talked out of illusions. If a person believes that the earth is flat, you can’t talk him out of that, he knows that it’s flat. He’ll go down to the window and see that its obvious, it looks flat. So the only way to convince him that it isn’t is to say, “Well let’s go and find the edge”
~ Alan Watts

“The individual is separate from his universal environment only in name. When this is not recognized, you have been fooled by your name. Confusing names with Nature, you come to believe that having a separate name makes you a separate being. This is—rather literally—to be spellbound”.
~ Alan Watts

“If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secret of secrets would open to you. The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe would appear on the mirror of your perception.”
~ Rumi

“Consciousness is always Self-Consciousness.
If you are conscious of anything, you are essentially conscious of yourself.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

“Consciousness is always Self-Consciousness.
If you are conscious of anything, you are essentially conscious of yourself.”
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
~ John 8:32

“You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.”
~ Psalm 82: 6

“Your own will is all that answers prayer,
only it appears under the guise of different religious conceptions to each mind.
We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, but it is only the Self, the ‘I’.”
~ Swami Vivekananda

You are not what you think you are:
You are not a person, or a personality.
You are not a body, or a nobody.
You are not your mind, or your thoughts.You are infinite Eternal Awareness.
You are the screen, not the movie.
You are Rama, not the drama.
You are the glory, not the story.You are the Whole, not your role.So, wake up, and –
Transcend entity identity!

* Advaita means non-dualism: it is
the oldest extant school of Indian Philosophy

Ron’s audio recitation of Advaita-Vedanta For Dummies

Ron’s Commentary: “We are not what we think we are!”
Dear Friends,
We are not what we think we are!
The foregoing crucial quotations and “Advaita-Vedanta* For Dummies” poem emphasize a pivotal spiritual message – that we share common self identity as Cosmic Consciousness or Non-Duality Reality.
And embedded below is an inspiringly important four minute viral video by rapper Makmantis X with over 83 million Facebook views – titled: “This literally made me question everything.” I urge you to carefully consider it!
The video, quotes and poem remind us that we are not who or what we are ‘labeled’ or taught to be, by society or by our mistaken self-perceptions.
We are not merely our mortal bodies – their genders, features, colors, religions, beliefs, emotions, habits or stories; we are not the ‘voices in our heads’.
We are immortal spirit experiencing fleeting earth lives from infinite perspectives in transitory ‘space/time’ vehicles. But we’re all the same ‘under the hood’.
What we call “death” is just a vacation – eternal soul vacating temporary physical vehicles. Cosmically, there is no death or time, just Eternal NOW!
May all our sufferings be transformed to universal happiness as we realize and actualize our common identity as Infinite Potentiality, Being, Awareness, Bliss; Eternal Peace, Life, Light – LOVE!
And so it shall be!

“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein

Sri Anandamayi Ma

This “Women in Art” viral video (below) creatively morphs together portraits of different unique beings, with a Bach cello musical background.
Apart from its exceptional artistic beauty and creativity, this video can be experienced as a metaphor for our ever evolving and expanding human consciousness.
From seeing everyone and everything as discrete and separated by apparently immutable boundaries, we are gradually realizing that everyone/everything is connected by our common essence:
ever-changing energy in a matrix of immutable Awareness.
Thus, we are evolving into the light of creation: from a Newtonian “reality” of polarized duality, to a quantum “reality” of holistic connectedness; from either this or that, to this and that are ONE.
And so shall it be!Women In Art video:

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness
that created it. ”
~ Albert Einstein

“The release of atom power ..changed everything except our way of thinking…
the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind.”
~ Albert Einstein

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
~ King Solomon – Proverbs 23:7

“I think with intuition. The basis of true thinking is intuition.
Indeed, it is not intellect, but intuition which advances humanity.
Intuition tells a man his purpose in life.
One never goes wrong following his feelings. . . . for feelings and intuition are one.”
~ Albert Einstein

“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein

“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
~ Albert Einstein

“Humanity is evolving out of the box and into the light of creation.”
~ Ellie Crystal

Individually and societally, humankind have been caught in a box –
a psychological box created by mistaken perceptions and ideas
of separation from Nature and each other.
We’ve mistakenly regarded ourselves and others as mere limited entities, rather than as limitless souls – spirit drops in an infinite ocean of Eternal LIght. And, our worldviews have been mostly based on such unrealistically limited ideas of who and what we are.
Thereby, individually we’ve been caught in a mistaken self-identity box;
and societally we’ve been “boxed in” by an outmoded Newtonian pre-quantum worldview. Though quantum science now knows that “reality” can’t be reduced to objects or entities in space, we’ve kept acting as if this is so.
We’ve thus been self-limited by our mistaken ideas of reality and of our true identities, powers and possibilities – which are infinite, though yet largely unknown and unrealized.
But, spurred by critical inter-personal and planetary crises, and blessed with an intuitive evolutionary impetus in each us, more and more people are realizing their true spiritual nature and awakening with compassion from their imagined limitations.
From seeing everyone and everything as discrete and separated by apparently immutable boundaries, we are gradually realizing that everyone/everything is connected by our common essence:
ever-changing energy in a matrix of immutable awareness.
We are evolving from a Newtonian “reality” of polarized duality
to a quantum “reality” of holistic connectedness; from either this or that, to this and that are ONE. And so we are beginning to envision, intuit and implement ‘Out Of The Box’ solutions to current crises.
And as we evolve ‘Out Of The Box’ and into the Light of creation,
we shall soon reach a critical mass tipping point which uplifts human consciousness to transcend and resolve crises created by outmoded and illusionary beliefs.
And so it shall be!Ron’s commentary on evolving out of the box and into the light of creation.
Dear Friends,
Ever aware that “no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it”, I have often wondered how individually and societally we can most effectively elevate human consciousness to resolve critical interpersonal and international planetary problems. And I’ve concluded that we each need to be ever more loving and compassionate; that our individual love is ‘contagious’ and will bless and change the world as it inevitably spreads to others, until ultimately we reach a ‘critical mass’ tipping point triggering new societal worldview solutions to old problems.
So seven years ago I optimistically predicted in the foregoing essay that “we shall soon reach a critical mass tipping point which uplifts human consciousness to transcend and resolve crises created by outmoded and illusionary beliefs.”
Yet paradoxically – especially since the 2016 ‘red pill’ election of Donald J. Trump as US President – it appears we may now be nearer than ever before to ecological or nuclear disaster, potentially portending destruction of Earth life as we have known it. So we urgently need new human worldviews to avert such disaster.
A century has passed since quantum science revealed to us that “reality” can’t be reduced to objects or entities in space. Yet we’ve kept acting as if this is so – clinging to a false Newtonian materialistic worldview that sees everyone and everything as discrete and separated by apparently immutable boundaries.
Three generations have passed since immensely destructive nuclear weapons were first developed and savagely used by the American Empire against innocent civilians at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet these dreadful weapons have proliferated worldwide and threaten our precious planet more than ever before. In a May 1946 letter to prominent Americans, Albert Einstein wrote: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”
Einstein foresaw that such “unparalleled catastrophe” could be averted only from levels of consciousness beyond those which created it; thus he observed that “the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind.”
After much deep reflection, and with unspeakable faith in LOVE as the Heart of all Humans, I have today intuitively reposted the foregoing essay with my ‘utopian’ prophesy of Humankind’s transcendence of current cataclysmic threats to life on Earth.
Perhaps I’m a crazy “cockeyed optimist”, but I still foresee the beginning a new age which will advance the highest good for all life on our precious planet; I’m still “stuck like a dope with a thing called hope, and I can’t get it out of my heart!”
Perhaps we are yet karmically destined to experience unprecedented ‘hard times’. But such suffering can be like a ‘red pill’ triggering a ‘breakdown breakthrough’ to a new worldview transcending the outmoded and illusionary beliefs which created current crises.Optimism optimizes opportunity. So I optimistically ask that you join with me so that together we – each from our unique intuitive perspective – may fearlessly follow our hearts to ‘contagiously’ bless all Life as LOVE.
With quiet minds and open hearts may we thereby honor the ONE spiritual essence of everyone/everything/ everywhere by uplifting human consciousness to transcend and resolve crises created by outmoded and illusionary worldview beliefs.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner

Thus, as Einstein observed:“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
Subject and object are mere ways of thinking –
perceptual/conceptual projections of Cosmic Consciousness,
which is our true Self.

As twentieth century Indian sage Sri Ramana Maharshi observed:“Consciousness is always Self-Consciousness.
If you are conscious of anything,
you are essentially conscious of yourself.”

Ron’s Subject-Object Commentary:
This “Subject-Object?” essay points to our spiritually limiting illusory belief that we are separate “subjects” observing separate “objects” in space/time.
Cosmically, as Einstein observed, “Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
Due to non-locality of space/time ‘reality’, perceived subjects and objects are not separated, but connected. All perceptions require projected subjective consciousness, which is immeasurable. So all perceptions are subjective projections of ONE immeasurable consciousness.
Thus everything perceived everywhere is an impermanent holographic energy form of projected consciousness. Yet we mistakenly believe in objectivity of what we subjectively project and perceive.
Like most Westerners I grew up culturally imbued with mistaken ideas and ideals of “objectivity” of our scientific, academic, journalistic and judicial institutions – of which as an adult I was soon disabused.
And after my midlife spiritual awakening, I began to realize that objectivity is an illusory impossibility; that the idea of objectivity refers only the measurable material world of forms and phenomena, which mistakenly excludes consciousness – the ultimate immeasurable Reality and source of all perceptions.
Despite discoveries in quantum physics, for the past century most materialistic mainstream scientists have remained reluctant to recognize the impossibility of scientifically ‘objective’ accuracy in describing Nature through measurement without reference to immeasurable consciousness.
Yet more and more visionary scientists have seen and transcended this mistaken materialist view. As explained by Nobel prize winning physicist Max Planck:

“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of Nature.
And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”

The foregoing essay is offered to encourage our deep ‘subjective’ reflection and recognition that humankind – and all of its institutions – are part of Nature with which we must mindfully and reverentially be ever harmonious.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner

“Space and time are not conditions in which we live,
they are modes in which we think”
~ Albert Einstein

“According to the Advaita philosophy, ..this Maya or ignorance–or name and form, or, as it has been called in Europe, time, space, and causality–is out of this one Infinite Existence showing us the manifoldness of the universe; in substance, this universe is one. So long as any one thinks that there are two ultimate realities, he is mistaken. When he has come to know that there is but one, he is right. This is what is being proved to us every day, on the physical plane, on the mental plane, and also on the spiritual plane.”
~ Swami Vivekananda – Jnana Yoga: The Yoga of Knowledge

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”;
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think”.
~ Albert Einstein

“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
~ Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning physicist

“The very study of the physical world leads to the conclusion that …. consciousness is an ultimate reality and, all the possible knowledge, concerning objects can be given as its wave function”
~ Eugene Wigner, Nobel laureate physicist and co-founder of quantum mechanics

“That which is impenetrable to us really exists. Behind the secrets of nature remains something subtle, intangible, and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.” ….“Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe.”
~ Albert Einstein

Have you ever wondered what is really “real”?
Or what isn’t “real”?
Is your “reality” only physical, measurable, perceptible, or comprehensible?
Where does this “reality” end and ‘unreality’ begin – if anywhere?
Our ideas of reality are crucial. Knowingly or unknowingly they deeply affect our beliefs about who and what we are; and, our beliefs about who and what we are determine our behaviors, our experiences and philosophies of life, both individually and societally.
Thus, reality paradigms which do not recognize our essential Unity with Nature and all its life-forms have proved environmentally, economically, internationally and inter-personally disastrous.

“…this separation between man and man, between nation and nation, between earth and moon, between moon and sun. Out of this idea of separation between atom and atom comes all misery. But the Vedanta says that this separation does not exist, it is not real.”
~ Swami Vivekananda

How different would be our behaviors if we truly realized and always remembered that we are part of Nature, deeply connected and unified with all life-forms; that our apparent separation from each other and Nature is a perceptual illusion?

“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.” .
~ Albert Einstein

As Jesus told us, with faith human potentialities are unlimited:

“All things are possible for one who believes.”
~ Mark 9:23

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
~ Matthew:17-20

But limited ideas about reality are conceptual cages confining us in a kind of psychological prison, restricting realization of our unlimited potentialities.
Culturally, our concepts of “reality” are an unspoken consensus abstraction dependent upon predominantly shared beliefs about what is “real”.

“Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.”
~ Alan Watts
“Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.”
~ Lily Tomlin

Until now, most of us have been unconsciously acculturated and indoctrinated with limiting ideas of self-identity and “reality”, without ever reflecting upon or intuiting who or what we really are and what’s really real.
Our ideas about “reality” – both individually and societally – differ with different people at different times and different places.
But beyond our ever changing and relative ideas of manifest “reality”, is there is a transcendent ultimate Reality – which is the eternal Source of relative reality? Beyond thought can we experience such ultimate Reality?
In universally seeking happiness, doesn’t everyone knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or subconsciously, remember and intuitively long for the experience of Divine Oneness?
Mystical “inner explorers” have answered all of the foregoing questions affirmatively. Mystics – from both East and West – have for millennia reported their discovery of ONE ultimate, unchanging non-duality Reality; THAT which is beyond definition, comprehension or imagination – yet, everywhere invisibly imminent in and source of our space/time polarity/causality relative reality.

“Time, space and causation are like the glass through which the Absolute is seen…In the Absolute there is neither time, space, nor causation.”
~ Swami Vivekananda
“Though One, Brahman is the cause of the many… Brahman is the unborn (aja) in whom all existing things abide. The One manifests as the many, the formless putting on forms.”
~ Rig Veda
“All things come out of the One and the One out of all things.”
~ Heraclitus, 500BC
“Reality cannot be found except in One single source, because of the interconnection of all things with one another.”
~ Leibniz, 1670
“We are a part of Nature as a whole whose order we follow.”
~ Spinoza, Ethics, 1673

And now more and more scientists are agreeing with the mystics. Matter has melted into Mystery. Physics and metaphysics are merging.
Both science and spirituality agree that the universe is undivided Wholeness.
And for some Quantum physicists – like Nobel laureate Max Planck – beyond “uncertainty” about reality of “matter” there is only consciousness and Divinity.

“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
~ Max Planck, as quoted in The Observer (25 January 1931)
“There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter. ”
~ Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
“Both Religion and science require a belief in God. For believers, God is in the beginning, and for physicists He is at the end of all considerations… To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalized world view.”
~ Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning physicist – Religion and Natural Science (Lecture Given 1937) Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, trans. F. Gaynor (New York, 1949), pp. 184

Thousands of years ago, Eastern seers called this permanently impermanent and ever changing world of countless forms and phenomena a dreamlike illusion, maya or samsara; a mere projection of the One Reality – of Infinite and Eternal Existence.

“The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze.”
~ Buddha
“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha

Einstein intuited that:

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

And now other scientists are agreeing with mystics and affirming Einstein’s observation about the illusion of physical “reality”.
For example, distinguished quantum physicist David Bohm has questioned any objective tangible reality. Bohm theorized that the universe is fundamentally like a gigantic hologram; that underlying apparent reality is a deeper order of existence, from which all the objects and appearances of our physical world arise and appear in much the same way that a two dimensional holographic film gives birth to a three dimensional hologram in space.

What appears to be a stable, tangible, visible, audible world, is an illusion. It is dynamic and kaleidoscopic — not really “there”. What we normally see is the explicit, or unfolded, order of things, rather like watching a movie. But there is an underlying order that is mother and father to this second-generation reality.
~ David Bohm

Until his death in 1955, Einstein maintained his intuitive view, consistent with ancient mystical insights but challenged by quantum physicists, that “God does not play dice with the universe”; that the principle of cause and effect (or karma) pervades the phenomenal Universe without exception; that the ideas of chance or “uncertainty” arise from causes not yet recognized or perceived.
Since Einstein’s death, some physicists like David Bohm have advanced theories which reconcile apparent contradictions between universal “causality” and quantum “uncertainty” and “non-locality” and they are thereby ever narrowing remaining apparent disparity between scientific and mystical views of “reality”.

“Science and religion will meet and shake hands…When the scientific teacher asserts that all things are the manifestation of one force, does it not remind you of the God of whom you hear in the Upanishads? Do you not see whither science is tending?”
~ Swami Vivekananda, London talk, 1896

As presciently envisioned by Swami Vivekananda, science and religion will ultimately agree on the ONENESS of phenomenal “reality”. And realizing such ONENESS, Humanity will at long last – as it must – discard destructive illusionary beliefs and behaviors which have brought it to the brink of ecologic, economic, inter-personal and international disaster.

“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.”
~ Niels Bohr

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena,
it will make more progress in one decade
than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”
~ Nikola Tesla

Thereupon, Humankind and all other life-forms on our precious planet, will harmoniously and peacefully flourish and evolve with Nature.
And so it shall be!

“When the mind is completely empty – only then is it capable of receiving the unknown.” …… “Only when the mind is wholly silent, completely inactive, not projecting, when it is not seeking and is utterly still – only then that which is eternal and timeless comes into being.”
~ J. Krishnamurti

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift
and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society
that honors the servant
and has forgotten the gift.”
~ Albert Einstein

“I think with intuition. The basis of true thinking is intuition.
Indeed, it is not intellect, but intuition which advances humanity.”
~ Albert Einstein

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
~ Albert Einstein

“The heart has its reasons which reason cannot know.”
“We know truth not by reason only, but by the heart”
“It is the heart which feels God, not the reason.
This then is faith: God felt by the heart, not by the reason”
~ Blaise Pascal

“Faith is different from proof;
the latter is human, the former is a gift from God.”
~ Blaise Pascal

To think or not to think,
that is the question!
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

Forget who you think you are
to Know what you really are.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings

“It is only the innocent mind . . . unclouded by experience, totally free from the past; . . . that can perceive what is reality.”
~ J. Krishnamurti

“Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity. Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and knowledge which are inseparable from time and the past. Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past. Thought is ever-limited and so we live in constant conflict and struggle. There is no psychological evolution.”
~ J. Krishnamurti

J. Krishnamurti

Cartesian Critique.

Descartes deduced his presumed separate existence with thought.
He reasoned: “I think, therefore I am”.
But wasn’t that putting Descartes before his Source?
Isn’t it apparent that we exist when not thinking?
Isn’t thinking optional, while Being is perpetual?
Why are we called human “beings”, and not human “thinkings”?
Isn’t existence much more than just thinking?
Don’t we exist in thoughtless states?
Doesn’t Being encompass conscious and subconscious
phenomena beyond thought – like emotions, feelings, sounds,
tastes, sensations, moods, dreams, autonomic processes, etc.?
Don’t all thoughts comprise and concern past ideas,
whereas life is ever lived in the Now,
never in the past or the future?
Aren’t we most aware of our existence
when we are thoughtlessly/choicelessly mindful?
What might Descartes say,
if he were here today?

Ron’s Commentary on Confusing Thinking With Being.

Dear Friends,
This essay/poem questioning René Descartes’ famous philosophical proposition: “I think therefore I am.” was written during an extended period of inner reflection following my midlife change of life. Not until then did I ever wonder about how we mistakenly self identify dualistically with the body/mind’s thoughts and story rather than its existential awareness.
Prior to my spiritual opening, I was most influenced and impressed by the world’s “great thinkers”, such as learned philosophers, professors, authors, authorities, and PhD ‘experts’.
But after my spiritual opening and discovery of Eastern non-dualistic mysticism – and especially after meeting my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas – I became and remain most inspired by the world’s greatest non-thinkers: mystics, intuitives and shamans from East, West and indigenous spiritual traditions, and those who in secular life acted humbly, intuitively, and authentically – like my heroes Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Einstein.
Guruji dropped out of school as a child and read very few books during his long life as mostly a wandering sadhu. Yet he was amazingly enlightened, pragmatically wise, intuitive, and prescient and could explain a wide variety of esoteric issues well beyond ordinary scholarly learning. Once when I asked him about an Indian pundit/professor then lecturing in the Bay Area, Guruji replied that the pundit was a very nice man – a “book yogi”.
Guruji’s “book yogi” comment piqued my curiosity about the difference between ‘book yogis’ and meditation yogis like Guruji. Soon I began learning to distinguish experiential learning from conceptual learning and belief; and I prioritized learning from life’s experiences rather than from beliefs, concepts or customs inculcated or acculturated by others. Thus I began to seek relief from belief.
By following Guruji’s instructions to ‘meditate regularly’ I learned that our existence is not dependent upon thinking; that by being “here NOW” with a stilled and thoughtless mind, we can intuitively access inner wisdom ordinarily obscured by ‘the voice in the head’; and, that our intuition facilitates and allows important insights not otherwise attained through worldly logic.
Thus I deeply concur with Albert Einstein’s observation that:“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
~ Albert Einstein
Today’s post is offered to remind us to not confuse thinking with being; that Life persists perpetually whether or not we are thinking. And to help remind us to honor and to prioritize our heart’s “sacred gift” of intuition over the rational mind – our “faithful servant”.
May we may thereby be enabled to experientially confirm Blaise Pascal’s foregoing quoted assertion that “It is the heart which feels God, not the reason.”

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
~ Albert Einstein

“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
~ Albert Einstein

“There is no place in . . [Quantum] physics both for the field and matter, for the field is the only reality.”
~ Albert Einstein

“Consciousness is always Self-Consciousness.
If you are conscious of anything, you are
essentially conscious of yourself.”
~ Ramana Maharshi

“This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once: scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic.”
~ Carl Gustav Jung

“The world, indeed, is like a dream
and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage!”
~ Buddha

“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion,
does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha

“What appears to be a stable, tangible, visible, audible world, is an illusion.
It is dynamic and kaleidoscopic — not really “there”.
What we normally see is the explicit, or unfolded, order of things, rather like watching a movie.
But there is an underlying order that is mother and father to this second-generation reality.”
~ David Bohm, Quantum Physicist

What is “Reality”?

“Reality” isn’t REAL!
“Reality” – like beauty –
is in the eye of the beholder.
It is a mental concept arising in consciousness,
and projected by the beholding self-awareness
onto certain perceived objects.
As rays of sunlight are in essence
the same as the emitting sun source,
perceived “reality” is in essence
the same as the Awareness
from which it originates.
But, because of the “magic mirror” of mind,
“reality” is mistakenly perceived
and objectified as separate and distinct
from the perceiving subject.
So, isn’t it NOW
time to really realize
that “reality” isn’t really real;
That only Awareness is REAL?

Ron’s Reflections on What is “Reality”?
Dear Friends,
Have you ever wondered what is really “Real”? – or “unreal”?“Reality” and “the real world” are common concepts; frequently used but rarely deeply considered.
According to dictionary definitions, “reality” is that which actually exists as distinguished from that which is merely apparent. So what in this world actually exists? And what in this world may be merely apparent, like a non-existent mirage or a nocturnal dream? – or a virtual or simulated reality?
Through Einstein’s discovery that everything is energy – e=mc2 – he realized that cosmically what we call reality, with our apparent separation from other life-forms, is an “optical illusion of consciousness”.

Similarly, the Buddha tells us that this world is not actually real, but an ‘unreal’ illusion:

“The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage!”
“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.”
~ Buddha
Quantum scientists now confirm that the supposedly ‘solid’ reality of our limited perceptions is an ever impermanent energetic illusion – only a virtual, simulated, or relative reality.
For millennia, mystics have told us that our perceived world of countless impermanent forms is a manifestation of ONE eternal and immutable Awareness, which is the only actual existence; that therefore this world of apparent multiplicity is merely an ever impermanent dream-like mental projection of That ONE Awareness, often called samsara or maya.
The quotes and verses above focus on mystical perspectives of “Reality”. They can help explain how in our world of duality – of apparent opposites – our projected mental perspectives determine our perception of “reality”.
Shakespeare tells us that“there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”. [ Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2]
Similarly, what appears to us as “real” or “unreal” or as “the real world” depends upon our thinking – the projected mental perspectives of those invoking those concepts.
The realization that our “reality” is merely an impermanent mental projection of immutable universal Awareness can greatly benefit spiritual aspirants. It can help us more and more to self-identify as abiding Awareness – as Eternal spirit, rather than only as mortal physical body/minds. Thereby, we can lead ever happier and fulfilled lives with growing compassion for all other life-forms, and with less and less suffering from unhelpful worldly desires and attachments.
Realization that our precious planet is only a virtual or relative or simulated ‘reality’ need not in any way diminish our awe and gratitude for its immense perfection as part of Nature’s miraculous magnificence, well beyond our comprehension or imagination. Nor need it detract from our wonder about the creation of this magnificence, and our unspeakable gratitude for and appreciation of our precious human body/minds as potentially harmonious life-form manifestations of Nature, to be lovingly and skillfully nurtured by us.
So I offer these posted quotations and poetic suggestions about “reality” versus “unreality” to encourage our deep reflection on those common concepts and, hopefully, to help us find growing happiness and fulfillment in this precious human lifetime on our precious planet Earth.
And so may it be!